Frozen Gold dishes quirky soft-serve constructions

Drew Shader, founder of Atomic Provisions, launched the newest arm of his culinary enterprise in the Springs on Nov. 14. Located right next door to his extant biz, Atomic Cowboy/Denver Biscuit Co./Fat Sully's, it's called Frozen Gold. Though it's bold to open an ice cream parlor in November, Frozen Gold's ostentatious enough to flout the weather. We've seen nothing like it around — both for the disco design and lavish goodies.

Frozen Gold offers three house-made ice cream flavors, with space for a fourth rotating flavor. In addition to classic chocolate and vanilla, they offer a decadent vegan coconut soft serve, made with coconut milk. Atomic Provisions executive chef Corey King says their soft serve's a higher quality product than corporate spots like Dairy Queen serve, thanks to two factors: more butterfat and less air. Frozen Gold soft serve has half as much air pumped into it (called "overrun"), compared to DQ's, and far more butterfat — 8 to 9 percent, next to DQ's 1.5 percent, King says.

Frozen Gold specializes in inspired combinations. The You're So Cheesy, for instance, is inspired by Chicago mix popcorn, a combination of caramel and cheesy popcorn. It's vanilla soft serve, with a caramel "core" injected into the swirl, topped with Cheetos, Cheez-Its and cheddar Goldfish crackers. Other flavors include the breakfast-inspired Silly Rabbit, filled with cereal milk, and the Samoa Samoa, a Girl Scout cookie-inspired vegan cone with brown sugar fudge and salted caramel.